The National Association of Seadogs (Pyrates Confraternity) has been involved and continues to be involved in a number of significant activities throughout its 60-year history including humanitarianism, volunteerism and community service. These have always been part of the pyratical experience, as encapsulated in the Association’s 3rd Compass Point: For Humanistic Ideals. To an extent, humanitarianism has become part of the integral function of the organisation, given that Humanitarianism and Human Rights are closely associated.
We, in NAS, believe that both movements are grounded upon the moral significance of the individual human being. NAS members also known as “Seadogs” are so passionate about community services and voluntary work that there is rarely any chapter of the organisation that is not involved in more than one humanitarian project to uplift and improve the communities we live and work.
Through the NAS charity programmes, Seadogs with their professional skills and experiences have contributed to humanitarian projects wherever aid is needed. Seadogs have an extensive range of skills including medicine, engineering, accounting, law, finance, human services, security, politics, information technology and much more. In most instances, both members and volunteer-minded non-members of NAS have collaborated at various community levels; nationally or internationally to implement projects which impact on the common good of the community.
THE NAS CHARITY RED BALL is an event conceived by the leadership of NAS in 2005, for the following purposes:
- Interface with, and enlighten the general public on Humanitarian Activities of NAS
- Conduct peer review exercises with the aim of arriving at improved ways and means of collaborating with like-minded individuals and organisations in conceiving and implementing humanitarian and social advocacy programs
- Raise Funds for NAS Charity Projects
- Create a platform for social interaction between members and non-members
The 2013 edition of NAS Charity Red Ball event is the 3rd in the series and will hold in Awka, Anambra state on Saturday May 4, 2013. The theme of this year’s event is: “Volunteering for the Education of the Street Child”.
This theme was adopted in response to the menace of child labor, which has seen the astronomical rise in the number of out-of-school children in Nigeria.
The UNICEF have reported that 40% of Nigerian children aged 6-11 do not attend any primary school while 30% of pupils drop out of primary school and only 54% transit to Junior Secondary Schools.
Speaking to the Western Europe Correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria at the World Education Forum on Wednesday, January 30, 2013 in London, The Nigerian Minister of Education Prof. Ruqayytu Rufai said that Nigeria accounted for 10.5 million of the 61 million “out of school ”children worldwide.
NAS is deeply alarmed by the implication of these figures and plans to use the platform provided by the 3rd NAS Charity Red Ball to rub minds with well-meaning individuals and group to develop and implement a strategy to put these children back to school so as to secure our ability to compete in the future as a nation.
In addition, NAS will use the opportunity provided by the event to launch her volunteer organisation, The NAS Volunteer Corps, a specialist, wholly voluntary organisation it has set up to focus on its humanitarian activities.
NAS Humanitarian Project Priorities
National Association of Seadogs (Pyrates Confraternity) as a socially responsible organization focuses its resources on certain areas to ensure that essential services reach those in great need. The following are the priority areas:
- HIV/Aids
- Darfur Genocide
- Education
- Healthcare (including Leprosy eradication)
- Legal Reform
- Political Reforms
NAS On-going Social Advocacy Projects
a. Wole Soyinka Lecture Series
The Wole Soyinka Lecture Series is an annual event in honour of Prof. Wole Soyinka, Africa’s first Nobel Laureate in Literature, which seeks to address a theme of current human need – locally or internationally.
b. Ralph Opara Memorial Lectures
The Ralph Opara Memorial Lectures is a memorial lecture to honour the memory of late Ralph Opara (MON), one of the founding seven members of the Pyrates Confraternity and his spirit of moral courage and vision, which he exemplified. It provides a forum to seek solution and understand national and global issues of an urgent nature.
c. Umalokun Memorial Lectures
The Umalokun Memorial Lectures is a remembrance lecture in memory of six members of NAS that were brutally murdered by officers of the Nigerian Police on December 27, 1983.
d. Legal Assistance and Prison Reform Initiative (LAPRI)
The Legal Assistance and Prison Reform Initiative (LAPRI) is a NAS initiative that uses the legal resources and provides legal assistance to individuals and disadvantaged persons, communities and groups and by so doing, assist in promoting legal and judicial reform in Nigeria.
e. Judicial Challenge Initiative (JCI)
The Judicial Challenge Initiative (JCI) is a NAS initiative that uses litigation in asserting the rule of law to challenge circumstances about bad governance and social injustice.
f. Medical Mission
The NAS Medical Mission is typically conducted quarterly to coincide with the quarterly general meeting of the Extended Executive Leadership of the Organization. It involves placing at the disposal of society the skills of our medical and health professionals to provide free medical services to the poorest of the poor within the community that our meeting is being hosted.
We look forward to being with you at the event.
Ide Owodiong-Idemeko
NAS Capon
